The Wild (2006)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Admirable film.

A lot of fun.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

For some reason I saw this movie in theaters. Its really bad and makes no sense. I wouldn't recommend it.

Samson the Wild (Kiefer Sutherland) claims to be the king of the jungle. He rules the New York Zoo. His son Ryan can't get the roar right and has a fight with him. The animals play when the zoo closes at night. Ryan goes off in a huff and accidentally gets locked in a trailer container. The containers are being sent to Africa to rescue animals being evacuated from a volcano. Samson sets off to retrieve Ryan with the help of squirrel Benny (Jim Belushi), koala Nigel (Eddie Izzard), giraffe Bridget (Janeane Garofalo), and anaconda Larry (Richard Kind). In Africa, they face off against wildebeest Kazar (William Shatner).This came one year after Madagascar and sometimes being first is being the winner. That's the case in this one. I don't necessarily blame this movie. I certainly don't claim that this movie copied anything from Madagascar. In fact, I'm sure Disney had a minor meltdown when they saw the similarities. This is less wacky than Madagascar. This story may be a slight improvement. The voice work is less wacky comedy although there is plenty of jokes. The animation is 3D semi-realism which makes Samson look like a stuffed toy. No matter any possible improvements or deficits from Madagascar, the comparison is never far behind and the movie suffers from the perceived lack of originality.

As I have said many times I love animated films and I love Disney, and this did look interesting. However, it turned out to be one of my least favourite Disney films, not the worst mind but still. Starting with the good things, the animation is absolutely wonderful. The colours are gorgeous, and the character designs are much better than the ones in Chicken Little in my opinion. The soundtrack was very nice as well, and the voice acting on the whole is excellent especially from Kiefer Sutherland, Jim Belushi and Eddie Izzard, who coincidentally voice the most interesting characters in the movie. I also liked the lively bickering between the animals. However, despite these strong points The Wild has some failures. The story is very predictable and has a lot of derivative elements, and while this is not a bad thing I did see a fair amount of Madagascar, Finding Nemo and Ice Age here. Speaking of the story, the final twenty minutes for me were lame, and the moralising got rather heavy-handed. And while I appreciated that it went briskly, the pacing did get a little too fast in places, no surprises really seeing as the film is too short. So, in conclusion, not bad but not good either. 5/10 Bethany Cox

First off it's Lion King in New York City. Second it's characters seem very toned down versions from Madagascar(Not a Disney movie). Which came out just before The Wild was released. I missed this one in the theaters and I am glad I did.The Computer Gernerated (CG) characters seemed hurried and needed work. They certainly did not look very good on my HD LCD SONY Flat panel.The story was so poorly formed it just seemed to go on and on and on and would never end.I know this is a cartoon but I have a problem with when they leave the NY Harbor they are on a small tug boat, which magically has enough fuel to make it to the coast of Africa then enough to make the trip back.I've enjoyed many of the newer CG cartoons that have been released this was not one of them I am glad I saw it on broadcast TV.Not worth the time, even kids would be bored with it.